Exposing services on the application network using the CLI¶

Use the CLI on local systems to create connectors and listeners for services on the application network.

After creating an application network by linking sites, you can expose services from one site using connectors and consume those services on other sites using listeners. A routing key is a string that matches one or more connectors with one or more listeners. For example, if you create a connector with the routing key backend, you need to create a listener with the routing key backend to consume that service.

This section assumes you have created and linked at least two sites.

Creating a connector using the CLI¶

A connector binds a local workload to listeners in remote sites. Listeners and connectors are matched using routing keys.

For more information about connectors see Connector concept

Prerequisites

The skupper CLI is installed.
The SKUPPER_PLATFORM environment variable is set to one of * podman,docker or linux.

There are many options to consider when creating connectors using the CLI, see CLI Reference, including frequently used options.

Procedure

Create a server that you want to expose on the network. For example, run a HTTP server on port 8080.

Create a connector:

skupper connector create <name> <port> [--routing-key <name>]

For example:

skupper connector create my-server 8080 --host localhost

3. Check the connector status:

skupper connector status

For example:

$ skupper connector status
NAME     STATUS  ROUTING-KEY HOST        PORT
my-server    Ok  my-server   localhost   8081

📌 NOTE By default, the routing key name is set to the name of the connector. If you want to use a custom routing key, set the --routing-key to your custom name.

Apply the configuration using:

skupper system reload

Creating a listener using the CLI¶

A listener binds a local connection endpoint to connectors in remote sites. Listeners and connectors are matched using routing keys.

Prerequisites

The skupper CLI is installed.
The SKUPPER_PLATFORM environment variable is set to one of * podman,docker or linux.

There are many options to consider when creating listeners using the CLI, see CLI Reference, including frequently used options.

Procedure

Identify a connector that you want to use. Note the routing key of that connector.

Create a listener:

skupper listener create <name> <port> [--routing-key <name>]

For example:

$ skupper listener create my-server 8080
File written to /home/user/.local/share/skupper/namespaces/default/input/resources/Listener-my-server.yaml

Apply the configuration using:

skupper system reload

Check the listener status:
```
skupper listener status
```

For example:

$ skupper listener status
NAME      STATUS  ROUTING-KEY  HOST     PORT  MATCHING-CONNECTOR  MESSAGE
backend   Ready   backend      0.0.0.0  8080  true                OK

📌 NOTE There must be a matching connector for the service to operate. By default, the routing key name is the listener name. If you want to use a custom routing key, set the --routing-key to your custom name.